Setting social media goals is essential for time management and focus. Take the time to identify which factors are the most important to track.

What are your key performance indicators for brand exposure?

Most people mistakenly assume brand exposure is measured by the number of fans or followers. Wrong! As of January 1, 2015 Facebook will only send your posts to a tiny portion of your fans to test it. If these 10-100 people don’t interact with your post it won’t trigger the algorithm to show the content to more people. (source)

Instead, focus on the number of shares each of your posts receives. Shares denote content your fans consider worth passing along. The more shares the more people who see your content.

You can also use “Reach”, “Views” or Impressions” to track brand exposure. These figures will tell you how many people saw your post.

Setting Smart Social Media Goals

Business use social media with the intent to increase sales and customer loyalty. Your website is a likely pace where people will learn about your business and browse your store. So, the number of people you get to click over to your website is one of the most important goals for social media.

Use Google Analytics to track these stats. Also look at the number of clicks each link gets when you share it on social media. Tip: Use Google’s UTM Link Builder to track individual links.